The Lead

A scene of jagged fiery peaks, turbulent magma-like clouds and fiercely hot bursts of bright light — although this may be reminiscent of a raging fire or the heart of a volcano, it actually shows a cold cosmic clump of gas, dust and stars.

FREE Email Newsletter

This 400x photo of mouse cardiac ventricular myocytes (isolated heart muscle cells) received an honorable mention in the 2014 Nikon Small World Photomicrophotography Competition, which recognizes excellence in photography with the optical microscope. It was taken using confocal microscopy.

What do you see in this image: a porpoise or a penguin? Amateur astronomers have nicknamed this pretty galactic pair after both of these creatures — the graceful curve of a dolphin or porpoise can be seen in the blue- and red-tinged shape towards the bottom of the frame, and when paired with the pale, glowing orb just beneath it, the duo bear a striking resemblance to a bird or penguin guarding an egg.

London appears as a cluster of bright radar reflections along the River Thames in this radar image from Sentinel-1A. The satellite captured this image on March 4, 2015, in its Interferometric Wide Swath mode and dual polarization, from which the artificial color composite was generated.

This 30x photo of an air pearl in a soldier fly larva respiratory fringe received an honorable mention in the 2014 Nikon Small World Photomicrophotography Competition, which recognizes excellence in photography with the optical microscope. It was taken using stereomicroscopy.

This 125x photo of a leafy liverwort (Nowellia curvifolia) gametophyte that is berberine stained received an honorable mention in the 2014 Nikon Small World Photomicrophotography Competition, which recognizes excellence in photography with the optical microscope.

From afar, Saturn's rings look like a solid, homogenous disk of material. But, upon closer examination from Cassini, we see that there are varied structures in the rings at almost every scale imaginable.

This image of Hungary, with the political border in white, is a mosaic of 11 scans by Sentinel-1A’s radar from October to December 2014. The scans were recorded in ‘dual polarization’ horizontal and vertical radar pulses, from which the artificial color composite was generated.

This 10x photo of a rat embryo fluorescently labeled with Rhodamine received an honorable mention in the 2014 Nikon Small World Photomicrophotography Competition, which recognizes excellence in photography with the optical microscope. It was taken using epi-fluorescence.

From the International Space Station, European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti took this photograph of the island of Hawaii and posted it to social media on February 28, 2015. Cristoforetti wrote, "And suddenly as we flew over the Pacific... the island of #Hawaii with its volcanoes! #HelloEarth"

This 250x photo of clam shrimp larva received an honorable mention in the 2014 Nikon Small World Photomicrophotography Competition, which recognizes excellence in photography with the optical microscope. It was taken using confocal microscopy.

For the Common Blue (Polyommatus icarus), by far the most common Gossamer in Germany, collected data shows a statistically significant decline of population. Grassland butterfly populations have declined dramatically over the last two decades.

Discovered on September 5, 1784, by astronomer William Herschel, the Veil Nebula was once a star. Now, it is a twisted mass of shock waves that appears six times larger than the full Moon in the sky. This Hubble Space Telescope image shows just a small part of the nebula, a region known as the ‘south-eastern knot.’ The entire nebula is about 50 light years in radius, and is located almost 1500 light years away.

ESA’s Proba-V minisatellite captures the rare sight of standing water in the arid south Australian outback. Lake Frome, one of the whitest salt lakes in the southern hemisphere is visible to the right. Unusually, this 12 February image shows it filled with brackish water that has flowed down the creeks in the area, which are typically dry.

In 1976 several elongated comet-like objects were discovered on pictures taken with the UK Schmidt Telescope in Australia. Because of their appearance, they became known as cometary globules even though they have nothing in common with comets. The object shown in this new picture, CG4, which is also sometimes referred to as God’s Hand, is one of these cometary globules.

This 20x photo of an ant eye received an honorable mention in the 2014 Nikon Small World Photomicrophotography Competition, which recognizes excellence in photography with the optical microscope. It was taken by Noah Fram-Schwartz of Greenwich, CT, using reflected light.

This color image shows the southernmost portion of Phlegra Montes on Mars, a complex system of isolated hills, ridges and small basins that spans over 1400 kilometers from the Elysium volcanic region at about 30ºN and deep into the northern lowlands at about 50°N.

This 100x photo of living green algae in interference phase contrast received an honorable mention in the 2014 Nikon Small World Photomicrophotography Competition, which recognizes excellence in photography with the optical microscope. It was taken using a light microscope and Interphako contrast.

Astronomical images often look like works of art. This picture of one of our nearest neighboring galaxies, the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), is certainly no exception! The scene is actually a collaboration between two cosmic artists — ESA’s Herschel space observatory and NASA’s Spitzer space telescope.

From the International Space Station, astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti took this photograph of Chicago and posted it to social media. Crewmembers on the space station photograph the Earth from their unique point of view located 200 miles above the surface as part of the Crew Earth Observations program. Photographs record how the planet is changing over time.

This 40x photo shows a sagittal brain slice with cell nuclei and Purkinije cells expressing EGFP. It received an honorable mention in the 2014 Nikon Small World Photomicrophotography Competition, which recognizes excellence in photography with the optical microscope, and was taken using confocal microscopy.

NASA astronaut Barry Wilmore works outside the International Space Station on the first of three spacewalks preparing the station for future arrivals by U.S. commercial crew spacecraft, on February 21, 2015. Fellow spacewalker Terry Virts, seen reflected in the visor, shared this photograph on social media.

This 5x photo of an ant carrying its larva received an honorable mention in the 2014 Nikon Small World Photomicrophotography Competition, which recognizes excellence in photography with the optical microscope, and was taken using reflected light and focus stacking.

This 6x photo of a pseudomorph of conichalcite after azurite received an honorable mention in the 2014 Nikon Small World Photomicrophotography Competition, which recognizes excellence in photography with the optical microscope, and was taken using transmitted light.

A solar filament erupted from the sun in the shape of a twisted arch, and the activity in the lower corona was caught in a wavelength of extreme ultraviolet light. The event occurred over a three-hour period on February 4, 2015, with most of the filament falling back into the Sun. Filaments are notoriously unstable.